ICICI Direct launches futures trading for Gulf Indians

Dubai, Oct 6 (IANS) With an eye to the vast expatriate Indian population in the Gulf, ICICI Direct, the online trading platform of India’s ICICI Securities, has launched its online futures and options (F&O) trading facility for overseas Indians.The new facility will allow its customers to avail of what ICICI Direct calls ‘CallNTrade’ service, according to an ICICI Securities statement.

“The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region is home to a large population of non-resident Indians,” Anup Bagchi, executive director of ICICI Securities, said in the statement.

“The present strength of the Indian community in UAE (United Arb Emirates) is around 1.4 million. It is estimated that about 33 percent of the total population and over five percent of the workforce in the UAE are Indians.”

“In Bahrain, nearly 290,000 Indian nationals form the largest expatriate community. This provides the right platform for us to launch this type of product and focus on GCC,” Bagchi said.

Stating that ICICI Securities has been providing advisory and investment solutions to the overseas Indian community in the Gulf for a long time now, he said with the launch of NRI F&O, “we are further reinforcing our organisation focus and commitment to serve NRI community and GCC region”.

ICICI Direct has over 1.7 million customers in the online trading space.

Its overseas Indian customer base spans over 100 countries.

Vishal Gulechha, head of product equity at ICICI Securities, said F&Os were critical financial instruments for risk management as these allow risks to be separated and more precisely controlled from volatile and uncertain situations.

“This provides NRIs unique opportunity to capitalise even in falling markets and other volatile situations,” he said.